Philip and Joe Finally Know
by JennieJoy72
Summary: Letting the rest of the family in on all the secrets.


**Disclaimer: Do not own SMK; do not make money off these, just for fun**

**Third story for Spies and Lies over Coffee and Cereal: Philip and Joe**

**Philip and Joe Finally Know**

"Lee, will you move in here?"

Lee looked from his step-son to his mother-in-law and finally to his wife, "I think that could be arranged. Jamie, do you understand that even if I take a desk job you can't tell anyone what we do for a living. People have to believe your mother and I work for a documentary film company."

"I know, Lee, I wouldn't want to do anything to have you leave our family; not now that you have one."

Jamie stood and took his bowl and spoon to the sink, rinsed them out, and then turned before going upstairs and asked, "When are you going to tell Philip?"

"I think Lee and I will discuss that and take care of it tonight. It is going to be a little harder telling him. You figured it all out and just wanted confirmation. Giving a whole explanation is a little different."

"Yeah, I guess so. Oh, yeah, Lee" Jamie said as he started to leave, "I just wanted to say I was sorry. I just didn't want my mom hurt again, not like before with my dad." Jamie turned on his heels and hurried up the stairs before Lee could respond.

Amanda placed her hand over Lee's and rubbed the back of it. She knew Lee was still new to these family feelings. The phone ringing broke the silence in the small kitchen and Amanda rose to answer it.

"Hello."

"Mom, I forgot to tell you last night that dad was picking me up and then taking me to get those shoes I needed for gym class. I should be home around dinner unless dad and Carrie take me out. Can I go if they ask?" Philip asked in such a rush that Amanda suddenly had a glimpse into what Lee felt at times when she was explaining something to him.

"Well, to be honest I need you home for dinner tonight, but I would like it if you would invite your dad for dinner too. I need to talk with both of you."

"What about Carrie? What if she is with dad?"

"That is fine. If they can't then you need to be here and you can have dinner with them later."

"Mom will Mr. Stetson be there? Won't that be weird having you and him and dad and Carrie?" Philip asked.

"Philip, it will fine, just ask your dad and let me know." Amanda said and then hung the phone up after telling Philip goodbye.

Dotty had been sitting there not saying a word and her silence began to start to worry Amanda a little. Sitting back down at the table and asked, "Mother, you haven't said a word since we came back down. Is there anything you have to say about all of this?"

"I'm sure I do, but it won't change anything. I still never believed in what you were telling me and I suppose it was because you had always had a wonderful imagination as a child. You were never one to really sit and wait."

"You're telling me." Lee said out loud without realizing it until both women gave him that look like he just grew a third head. "Uh, I thought I said that in my head. Sorry continue."

"We will talk about that later, mister." Amanda said as Lee just flashed his bright smile.

"Lee, I understand the secrecy, I suppose, because of your line of work; the marriage I don't know about. People elope all the time and it would have just been nice to know even if I couldn't say anything."

Lee looked her in the eyes and said. "I know, Mrs. West, but to tell about the marriage we would have had to tell you about why it had to be kept from the boys. We wanted as little people having to lie as necessary. We knew that this wasn't going to be easy when the time came, but I also never thought I would get busted by a twelve year old. I was hoping that all this would be taken care of and out in the open by our first anniversary. I was hoping that Jamie would at least like me enough for me to be able and propose to Amanda by Christmas and 'married' by our anniversary. I can't ask you to forgive our actions; I can't ask you to understand, but I will ask you to ask yourself if you could forgive us. It was all for your safety."

Dotty looked at her 'newly' acquired son-in-law and said, "Of course I can forgive you, I just don't want any more lies in this family." She leaned over and patted Lee on the hand and stood to leave the kitchen.

Amanda and Lee sat there looking at each other not really believing the events of the morning. Neither one was ready to break the silence when the clock in the living room began to chime letting them know it was only nine a.m.

"Wow, only nine? How do we handle Philip and Joe?" Lee asked.

"Lee, the hardest thing for Joe is going to be learning about the marriage. Philip will be a harder sell on the whole situation."

"I know. I just am out of my element with this. I would have been better prepared if it came from us. I feel blindsided."

"Lee, we can't control everything in our lives and you know that as well as I do; we can on the other hand we can control the information they get from this point on and go from there. I think by just telling them tonight at dinner then we can hopefully work through it. We have a lot of things to cover tonight."

Lee stood and rinsed his coffee mug out and turned to place Amanda in his arms. Kissing his wife and letting her strength wrap around him, Lee stepped back and said, "Okay, I have to go to my apartment to shower, change, and then on my way back I will stop and pick the stuff for dinner."

"Okay, see you in a few hours."

"Lee, do you care if I go with you? I thought we could talk some more." Jamie said as he came back in the kitchen.

"If it is okay with your mom, I don't care. You can even help me pick up something for dinner. We will only be gone a little while."

"Can I mom?"

"You aren't going to grill him about what we do at work are you?" She asked.

"Mom, I know all I need to know about your job; you make documentaries right?" Jamie responded with a sly grin on his face.

"Exactly, Jamie, we do. Have a good time with Lee then."

"Okay, thanks mom." Jamie ran outside and waited by Lee's car a minute before Lee walked out and they left.

**3:00 p.m.**

Philip, Joe, and Carrie King all came in the front door with what sounded like the debate of the century going on. Amanda greeted them as she came down the stairs. "Hello Joe, Carrie what is going on?"

Carrie said, "Well apparently the continuation of the free world depends not on fuel, education, or even government, it is in the hands of who gets to go and win the next World Series." The women just laughed and Amanda said, "Welcome to my daily world. How have you been Carrie?"

"Work is busy but in this day and age one would expect that. How are you?"

"Same here; I am so glad you got to join us."

"To be honest I almost didn't. I don't want to be intruding on what obviously is going to be a family meeting."

Amanda placed her hand on Carrie's arm and said, "You are the boys' step-mother, you are family. Please you are always welcome here. I hope you understand that."

"Thank you, Amanda that means a lot coming from Joe's ex. You never really know how things are going to play out when an ex gets remarried. My own parents never got along much less the new spouses."

"It is about the kids not us. We have to work together to make it the best for them. Now let's go see where everyone went to."

Amanda and Carrie found everyone in the back yard. Dotty, seeming more like herself was talking with Joe. Philip had joined Jamie and Lee in throwing the baseball around. Amanda smiled to herself just to enjoy the happy moment, knowing that the day may very well end in different spirits.

"Okay who is in charge of this grill today? It is not us ladies that's for certain."

"Lee is mom; he said he would grill today."

"Then I guess you boys should play and let Lee get it started. Joe? Carrie? Mother, do you want something to drink? Lee, what would you like to drink?"

Amanda went in to get Dotty, Lee, and Carrie some wine, Joe a beer, the boys some juice, and herself a bottle of water. _No one will notice _she thought as she went back out.

Handing the drinks out, Lee looked at Amanda and asked, "Are we out of wine? I just bought some when I picked up dinner?"

"No, there is plenty of wine." Amanda said as she sipped her ice water.

Carrie started the conversation up by saying, "Amanda, what is going on? Philip said it was kind of important."

Amanda and Lee looked to one another and Amanda said finally, "I would really like to wait until we all have a chance to be in the same place at one time. This really isn't something Lee and I want to continue to repeat. We have already talked with Jamie this morning, but we feel it best if everyone else is informed and. . . ."

"Amanda," Lee interrupted "I think it would be fine if we got it over with. It isn't going to make it any easier if we wait."

"I knew it; I told you Joe, they are getting married. Philip thought so too."

"Mom, you and Lee are getting married, I knew it. Dad didn't believe me and Carrie. Congrats." Philip said excitedly.

"Not exactly, bro, you might want to sit down and learn a few things. This is going to be fun."

"Jamie, that is not necessary." Dotty said before anyone else had a chance to say anything.

Lee set the tongs next to the grill as Amanda said, "Well, first thing first. Lee and I are not getting married because we already are. We eloped back in February." She sat and watched the faces of the three faces staring at her.

"Already married?" Philip asked. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

Amanda looked at Lee for support and help. "Philip, we haven't been able to tell anyone we were married for a couple reasons. The first one being if we told anyone at work then we wouldn't have been able to work together any longer. The next being because of what we do the safety of this family could have been in question. We didn't want anyone coming after you all to hurt one of us. Finally, I really wanted you and your brother to know me better."

Joe was the first to speak, "So, I take it you do more than just Lee's paperwork. You have a more in depth position with the company."

"Yes, I am Lee's partner. Philip what that means is that Jamie was correct when he tried to tell you we weren't in the film industry. We are federal agents and we work for the government."

Amanda sat to gauge his oldest son's reaction to everything he had been told. Dotty asked Philip, "Do you have any questions for your mother or Lee?"

"So, what your saying is that you and Lee are married, you work for the government, and you couldn't tell us because it wasn't safe for us? Is it safe now?"

"We don't know. We hope so. We have to let people at work know, sweetheart. Jamie kind of confronted Lee this morning over breakfast and we thought tonight would be as good as any time to let you know. We wanted your dad and Carrie here because I felt your father needed to know as well and I didn't want him to keep secrets from his wife. Mother said it perfectly earlier that we don't need any more secrets in this family."

"Can I tell people what you really do?"

Lee answered this one, "No one can know. We were planning on telling everyone when I came out of the field, but even after I do no one can know what I do for a living; they have to think we still work in the film industry. Your mother and I still want as much safety for this family as possible. Can you handle that? I know it is still lying, but not with in this house."

Philip sat quietly for a few minutes and said, "Do we have to move? I don't want to move."

"No, you won't have to move." Lee said.

"Joe, you haven't said anything."

"Amanda, you know I am happy for you and I figured you did more than what you let on about at your job. I knew you would tell everyone when it was okay to. Like everyone else I just wish you would have told us about the wedding. We can't do anything about what we didn't know. I am glad you let us in on your news. Thank you, sweetheart." Joe leaned over and gave Amanda a kiss and Lee felt that tinge of jealousy but he knew he always would feel that where Joe was concerned, but he knew above all his wife loved him.

After talking to Philip and answering as many questions they could without breaking national security, everyone was ready for a new topic and went on to eat dinner and baseball became the new topic of choice. Jamie and Philip of course couldn't agree on a team. Joe and Lee were talking a new policy trying to be passed in Congress. Amanda, Carrie, and Dotty cleared the dinner plates and rinsed them in the sink and as Dotty offered to refill Carrie's wine Carrie asked, "Amanda would you like some wine now? I am a health nut to but I grew up for a while in France and wine was a staple at dinner; at least with dessert, which looks yummy by the way." Carrie was eyeing the cake on the counter trying to figure out how she had missed it before.

"Thank you, Carrie, but no I really am fine. Why don't we cut this up and see if we can call a truce on the sports and politics growing in the backyard."

"Uh, huh." Carrie gave Dotty a curious look and Dotty's eyes got big at her insinuation for her daughter not wanting any wine.

All three went out and set the plates of cake on the picnic table; bringing all four guys to the table. Dotty refilled Lee's glass and handed Joe another beer and when everyone was sitting and enjoying the cake Dotty asked, "Amanda, you were right. I think it is a very good idea if we have no more secrets in this family. So as your mother and the head of this family, of sorts, do you have anything else to tell us? Anything at all?"

Having raised his fork halfway to his mouth Lee picked up on the tone in Dotty's voice and he barely said, "A –man – da . . . ."

Amanda simply said, "Oh, about me being pregnant? I was just getting to that."


End file.
